Thursday, April 05, 2012

Flower pendants in polymer clay

I wanted to share a couple of pics of my favorite flower pendants in polymer clay.  Okay, granted I've only made a couple of these so far, but I'm really liking them. These are made with artist-grade polymer clay (a.k.a. Premo) and mica powders.

A good clay friend, Barb H., was giving me some feedback on the first piece, the pink one, and wondering if I could add in some flower buds or sort of sideways flowers.  Well, I think I did pretty good adding the flower buds on the second one, the gold one.  (You can click on the photos to see them larger)

Flower pendant with pink background - by Jainnie Jenkins
Flower pendant with gold background - by Jainnie Jenkins

I'll have to really start looking at flower pics!  I realize these are not really any specific type of flower, and my sometimes over-analytical nature has me thinking..."Hmmm, I wonder if these buds match this made-up flower?"  But I still think it's rather pretty.  To me, there is also a bit of an Asian feel to them.

It's really quite funny, I had posted a pic of the gold one in progress (on Facebook) and then said it was in danger of being overworked.  Ahh, that's what happens when you are just "going with it" and trying to feel it out as you go along.  It can be quite a tedious process, with figuring out whether you need one more flower bud, one more leaf, is there flow through the piece, is it too busy, what will "connect" each part (since they are not on stems)... but I secretly kind of love it!  Art is all about challenge and working through the frustrations.  It makes the end product so much more fulfilling, even if it can still be improved upon or have a different outcome.  But I have decided I really should start rough sketching what I want to do to see if that helps my process any.

As a sidenote, I wanted to say that if you view this picture larger, the shading around the flowers (on the gold background) may seem a bit imperfect, but I think it's just the photo I took with my phone.  It doesn't look like that in person! :)

Let me know what you think. I love to hear comments and I love critiques! 


6 comments:

Irrysistable Jewels said...

Love your new Pendants. The pink one is my favorite. I can't wait to see what you create next.

Roberta Warshaw said...

They are really lovely. I actually like it when they look like a flower or plant but not a real one. I wonder if you could show the back sometime.

I have thought about putting my pieces into a bezel type of thing but can't figure out how to do it. Is there a tutorial that you might know of? Do you bake it in the bezel or glue it or what? Where do you find those bezels? Too many question, I know.

Anonymous said...

Love the way that you've made them into your own style and different from several other polyclay artists such as ChilliCrab, Jennifer Morris and Veronica whose work is more or less identical.
Also the non-floral ones are gorgeous - especially the taos dream pendant.
I'm a newbie in this field having been a painter and general crafty person and I'm in practise mode right now!

Jainnie Jenkins said...

Thanks, Tammy! The pink one is actually a favorite of mine as well. Luckily, it was bought by a longtime online friend, so I know it has a good home! I love the pink background and I like the warm cream color of the petals.

Roberta, thanks for your comments! I actually also like flowers and plants whether they look like the real thing or not. :) I know we've already corresponded about the bezels via email, and hope you do try them out sometime!

Judy, thanks so much for your comments. That's really nice and kind of you to say. I am familiar with those other artists, and their work is beautiful. For myself, I know I'm usually not satisfied until I've taken a technique and made it my own, which is not always the easiest. I'll try to contact you via your blog to see if there is any info I can help you with! Lots of great sites out there.

Diana in CO said...

Great work!

Mary C. Nasser said...

Really gorgeous pendants! Exquisite!
Looking forward to taking BYW 2.0 with you! :)

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